A bio-inspired underwater robot that swims by undulating its body may be more energy efficient than a rigid one, but it’s also very difficult to build. But that could change soon, thanks to a new modular robotic system.
The system, currently under development at MIT, incorporates individual building blocks called voxels.
These are basically hollow plastic boxes made up of multiple thin struts that are stiff and load-bearing when pushed in one direction, but soft and flexible when pushed in the other direction. The combination allows the robot to simultaneously bend left and right while maintaining its overall body shape without the need for complex custom-designed hardware.
In one demonstration of the technology, scientists built a snake-like robot about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long, made up of 20 voxels connected end-to-end.
Actuators within the body pull the sides of these voxels via steel cables, sequentially compressing the voxels and relaxing them to one side or the other, creating undulations that move from the front to the back of the body (snug fit neoprene skin). more hydrodynamic). Towed tank tests have shown that the robot can indeed swim efficiently through water in this manner.
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And while the voxel-built ‘Hydrosnake’ robot is only made up of about 60 individual components, the researchers found that a snake previously built by NASA (using conventional components) It states that a robot like this was configured. thousandIn addition, MIT’s own fish-like Robotsuna robot took two years to design and build, while Hydro Snake was assembled in just two days.
Voxels were also used to build the wings. The wing profile (cross-section) shape can be morphed to change the lift-to-drag ratio. An array of scaly tiles superimposed on its outside maintains a watertight seal even during the process of changing the curvature of the wing. Such wings could potentially be used in systems that generate electricity from ocean waves or allow ships to move more smoothly through water.
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Moreover, since voxel systems in general scale up easily for large-scale applications, scientists believe that even whale-inspired submarines that move by bending mechanical tail fins could one day be used.
A paper on this study, led by research assistants Alfonso Para-Rubio, Professor Michael Triantafirou and Professor Neil Gershenfeld, was recently published in the journal. soft robotics.
You can see the Hydro Snake and Morphing Wings in action in the video below.
Modular Morphing Lattice for Continuous Robot Construction
Source: MIT
